Kyiv-based organizations of the Ukrainian People's Party (UNP), the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists (KUN), the Ukrainian National Assembly - Ukrainian National Self-Defense (UNA-UNSO) and the All-Ukrainian Union "Freedom" are getting ready to meet the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church in Kyiv in their own way.
The Kyiv branch of the All-Ukrainian Union "Freedom" announced on Thursday that it will hold pickets to protest the Ukrainian visit of Patriarch Kirill. One picket will be held outside the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra Monastery on Sunday, July 25; another picket will be held in front of St. Sophia Cathedral on Monday, July 26; and a third one in Volodymyrska Hill on Tuesday, July 27.
"The current visit to Ukraine by Russian citizen Vladimir Gundyayev, as well as the results of his two previous visits strongly indicate that his activity with regard to Ukraine is primarily political. He uses his visits to promote the hostile political concept of "the Russian world" in which there is no place for an independent Ukraine," the "Freedom" said in a press statement.
A press conference will be held near the walls of St. Sophia Cathedral on July 26 to discuss ways of overcoming an artificial split within the Ukrainian Orthodox religion and prospects for establishing a single national Orthodox church in the country, the KUN’s Kyiv branch said in a press statement.
A picket will be organized in Triokhsviatytelska Street on July 27 to protest Patriarch Kirill’s "concept of the Russian world," the statement said. On July 28, representatives from the UNP, KUN and UNA-UNSO will gather at St. Volodymyr Cathedral, which belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (the Kyiv Patriarchate) on July 28 to join a prayer and a sacred procession to celebrate the 1022nd anniversary of the baptism of the Kyivan Rus.
It was reported that on July 20 Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill began a pastoral trip across Ukraine, which will continue until July 28.
